Sri Lanka considers uninterrupted power supply for tourism sector after 11-month low arrivals
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka is planning to provide uninterrupted power supply to the tourism sector in hopes to increase tourist arrivals, Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told the parliament, after the island nation saw the worst monthly arrival in September.
“We will be looking at regions across Sri Lanka and will provide them uninterrupted power supply to
facilitate tourism,” said Fernando told on Wednesday (05) when he addressed the Parliament.
The move comes after a mobile service was launched meeting between the Tourism Ministry and industry stakeholders to gain information on the difficulties and hardships faced by them.
The Sri Lankan government has blamed negative publicity for the downfall in September in which the arrival suffered its worst since October last year. The number dropped by 21 percent compared to August.
Minister Fernando urged the legislators not to tarnish the image of the island to disrupt tourism as it will postpone economic recovery to Sri Lanka.
“There is a certain group of individuals who claim to help the country get out of the crisis. But they are
also responsible behind news agendas that say Sri Lanka has no food security, it’s not a place for living because it has no parliament or leader,” Fernando said.
Sri Lanka’s peak tourism season starts from September in line with the winter season in the Western region of the world. However, the island nation popular for its beaches and nature saw a drop in the month despite the country saw some improvement in the supply of essentials like fuel and cooking gas.
Sri Lanka is in the process of coming out of an unprecedented economic crisis which turned into political crisis and forced both former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother and former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign amid public protests for their economic mismanagement.
“I can confidently say there will be a record breaking tourist arrivalz in the latter part of the year,” said Fernando.
Sri Lanka’s financial crisis resulted after mass money printing and a fixed exchange rate which collapsed the rupee. The government has been focusing now to generate foreign currency including from tourism to overcome the economic meltdown. (Colombo/Oct05/2022)
